GRAYLING INSTITUTE. 363 



GARDENS, BY JACOB STECKERT. 



I have no paper, but will give from memory a report of two and one-half 

 acres, somewhat stony land, on the south side of a hill. 



The first year, in addition to what we needed for family use, this two and 

 one-half acres netted us $200 cash, and the second year $400. I raised 

 chiefly lettuce, radishes, melons and squashes. A strip of lettuce 12 feet 

 wide by 100 feet long netted me $21, and a strip of radishes the same size 

 $28. A patch of nutmeg and water melons 30 feet by 100 feet netted me 

 $100. Of course I got fancy prices, because the demand exceeded the sup- 

 ply. In seven years I have only twice succeeded in getting good melons. 

 Tomatoes are caught by early frosts before they ripen, usually, though three 

 years, by trimming the vines, I have succeeded in ripening them. 



Mr. Grlidden : Did you manure your garden and use the same spot con- 

 tinuously? 



Mr. Steckert : Yes, for five years till it got so foul with weeds that I had 

 to put it to wheat and clover for two years to clean it and now I have it in 

 garden again. I have rotated crops from one part of the garden patch to 

 another. 



Mr. Pelt : Frost last year and year before came in August, last year on the 

 28th. 



I have no complaint as to our soil, but the climate I can not provide against. 

 My corn was spoiled and so were my cucumbers and my potatoes, but some 

 pie pumpkins which I think much better than Hubbard squash ripened. 

 How to force my garden out of the way of the first frosts I don't know. 

 I plant corn May 20 in my garden and radishes, cabbages and peas as early 

 as I can after snow. 



A good rain once a week would save us. 



Prof. Taf t : My plan would be in the fall to plow in manure and in the 

 earliest spring to plant hardy things and put on a little phosphate in the hill 

 to hurry starting, and in the summer a little ground bone to hurry fruiting 

 and ripening, and through the period of growth to keep the ground stirred 

 on top one inch, not lower. 



Sometimes a box covered with mosquito net holds heat and hurries growth. 



Tomatoes can be started in the house very early and transplanted several 

 times before final setting out. 



Mr. Niles: I start tomatoes in hot beds and use old unsoldered tin cans, 

 tarred paper or birch bark tied together for flower pots and set them in the 

 hot bed, if I have it, or in a warm window or near the stove on a board till 

 time to set out ; then I prepare the hill with two or three shovels full of 

 manure and set the can in and so don't check the growth in transplanting, 

 and set four feet apart and mulch with manure to prevent drying out, and 

 when the fruit is setting I nip out all superfluous growth and let it ripen 

 down on the ground, when, by trimming, it is fully exposed to the sun and 

 kept warmer than when lifted up on trellises. 



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